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Topic: DOS and Win-OS/2 Windowed Sessions (Read 1799 times)

I noticed that I can't seem to launch any DOS or Win-OS/2 windowed sessions. I tried the solution on the ArcaOS website, adding /int10textgrfxsafe to the VSVGA.SYS line in the config and also adding in the couple of lines to the Autoexec file. However, still no luck on my end. I was wondering if anyone else has come across any worthwhile fixes yet.

Can you open a full screen Dos session and then use Alt-Home to switch it to being a window? It's the only way i can get a windowed Dos session otherwise I get a window about one line high and a popup about not supporting the resolution or such.Funny enough, a Winos2 session does open in a window here though I get the same popup.

It seems that Panorama generally does not support Win16-seamless, only Snap does. But Snap has very poor performance with current graphics cards. The Alt-Home trick works on my system. ArcaNoae has got the rights of the SNAP source code and plans to update SNAP for newer graphics cards, but I haven't heard any timetable the last months.

With ArcaOS 5.0.3, a new Panorama version (1.11) has been published. Has anyone tried it? (I fear that the Win16-seamless problem has not been fixed.)

It really depends on the hardware and it seems that most newer graphics cards (and builtin graphics) doesn't have the support needed for seemless or like my older card, partial support. I'm using the newest Panorama which I believe only has minor fixes.As for SNAP, I believe it is low on the priority list with drivers such as USB3 and AHCI at the top as they're needed to install on new hardware. Arca Noae doesn't have endless resources.

It seems that Panorama generally does not support Win16-seamless, only Snap does. But Snap has very poor performance with current graphics cards. The Alt-Home trick works on my system. ArcaNoae has got the rights of the SNAP source code and plans to update SNAP for newer graphics cards, but I haven't heard any timetable the last months.

With ArcaOS 5.0.3, a new Panorama version (1.11) has been published. Has anyone tried it? (I fear that the Win16-seamless problem has not been fixed.)

Nope the bottle neck is not in Panorama, GRADD or SNAP. The bottle neck has also nothing todo with the native video support SNAP provides.

The bottle neck is VSVGA.SYS. This driver depends INT10 calls to the video card (the video card BIOS). Basically DOS and WIN/OS2 support the video support is provided by VSVGA.SYS. I think Arca Noae mentioned at Warpstock they are working on this. But I know from my time working at Mensys on eCS (I no longer work there) that this seems to a pretty big job to get it done. I do not know where they are at Arca Noae.

It seems that Panorama generally does not support Win16-seamless, only Snap does. But Snap has very poor performance with current graphics cards. The Alt-Home trick works on my system. ArcaNoae has got the rights of the SNAP source code and plans to update SNAP for newer graphics cards, but I haven't heard any timetable the last months.

With ArcaOS 5.0.3, a new Panorama version (1.11) has been published. Has anyone tried it? (I fear that the Win16-seamless problem has not been fixed.)

Actually, neither Panorama nor SNAP supports DOS/Windows seamless sessions. VSVGA gives the supports (hence why the OP mentioned the change he made was to the parameters of it). The problem is different in nature (but the same idea that necessitated the parameter) that changes in the BIOS now need a change in the VSVGA .

I run eCS with snap driver and I don't have any problems with seamless operation of DOS or Win16 windows. The only thing in DOS or Win16 FULL screen operations is that your mouse won't work as well due to the enhanced resolutions. So you have to run it in windowed sessions. Can even copy and paste in DOS sessions with programs which do not know what a mouse or copy and paste is.

VSVGA.SYS is a version of VVGA.SYS, that has been patched to fix SMP (Symetrical Multi processor) problems. It still has some problems, but I have used VVGA.SYS in the past, with no apparent problems, on a SMP machine (but I haven't really used DOS and WinOS2 support, for many years). Just change the line in CONFIG.SYS, and try it. Be prepared to force a reboot and back out the change, if it causes problems (single processor machines should be okay with it). No guarantees, try it at your own risk.

A better solution, is to use DOSBOX (a virtual DOS machine): http://hobbes.nmsu.edu/download/pub/os2/apps/emulator/dosbox0.74.2.zip. Install DOS in it (I recommend IBM DOS 7, if you can find it), then install the real win 3.1, with any additions (including the ones that never worked in WinOS2). That has always worked better, for me (but I can't even find a program to run in DOS, or Win 3.1, any more).

I run eCS with snap driver and I don't have any problems with seamless operation of DOS or Win16 windows. The only thing in DOS or Win16 FULL screen operations is that your mouse won't work as well due to the enhanced resolutions. So you have to run it in windowed sessions. Can even copy and paste in DOS sessions with programs which do not know what a mouse or copy and paste is.

I am running Panorama and have seamless Dos/Win16 sessions. Again, it matters not which OS/2 video driver is in use because it doesn't provide the support for seamless sessions... it is vsvga.sys.